Does our stuff define us or do we express who we are by what we buy?
Thoughts about why I've purchased the things I have.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Some more Samoas, or thinking about Thin Mints

Camp Fire Girls sell lovely candy, which is good, but it ain’t Girl Scout cookies*. Like many people, I look forward to Girl Scout cookie time (which, apropos of nothing, coincides with Free Beef Days at Les Schwab Tires here in the American Northwest).

Why buy from the Girl Scouts instead of getting other cookies, which are available year round and probably cheaper?

They are iconic. Oreos and Fig Newtons** are too, but GSCs have that “available for a limited time” cachet that has done so much for infomercial products and the McRib***.

Some of the money goes to a good cause**** and the whole process help the girls learn some skills.

I get to buy them from an actual Girl Scout, not from a parent at my office. A neighbor’s daughter comes to our house to take our order and returns with the goods a couple months later. It isn’t exactly instant gratification, but the cookies are worth the wait.

My only complaint: I always try to freeze some Thin Mints to eat later in the year, but I haven’t got the will power; if only the GS had lay-away or offered scheduled delivery similar to milk or produce vendors.

I could be eating healthier cookies, but my overall diet is pretty nutritious (thanks in big part to my wife), so having some less-than-ideal treats is OK now and again. Michael Pollan might disagree, mostly due to his five ingredients/pronounceable ingredients rules, but you can have my Girl Scout Cookies when you pry the crumbs from my cold dead lips.

Apologies for the footnotes, but I’ve been reading Infinite Jest and it’s rubbing off on me.------*And why don’t Boy Scouts don’t have a fundraising product?**No special allegiance to Nabisco products, they were the first cookies that came to mind.***Ugh.about****On a imprecisely related note, there’s also no controversy with Girl Scouts that I am aware of like there is with Boy Scouts and their policy toward gay men or atheists and agnostics.